The Commission

The Commission

         I was commissioned by my professor.  To do a quilt art for her. Through my quilting and I waited to see if I found something that would inspire me to do something for her.  I wanted it to be personal.  

She had this beautiful picture of her son.  Learning how to swim and I was touched and wanted to do this for her.

I went to a print store and had the picture re sized as large as they could.  Like I said,  "I'M not a Pencil ARTIST."  I don't want to copy the picture I want to get a true outline of the body so I can add my vision of what the quilting could do. 


Well since I'm an Embroidery I use water soluble stabilizer. 

They are two types. 
-One that is water soluble stabilizer which dissolves with water.  It has more texture on the stabilizer.  
-The other is Heat dissolving stabilizer put iron on it and it will dissolve.  The heat stabilizer is clear like cooking wrap.

Time to trace

Time to trace and copy not the details of the picture but the outline of the body and where the eyes are and hands so that when I quilt I know where the body and placement  should be.       
 

Isn't he cute.  

Painting the fabric.

Of course I used white satin, I love the shininess of the fabric.  I did the painting in several layers. 
-One layer had aqua,
-second layer had blues,
-third layer had purples with running water on it,
-forth layer had gold and pearl white to lighten the richness of the fabric.

Paint

This is Airbrush paint for fabric, metal, and plastic.  I heat set it and washed the fabric and it is their for life. 




Now the QUILTING

Here is the start of the quilting.  I am using two layers of batting I want to  have a lot of quilting to create movement but where I have less quilting I want it to rise some.

 

 

A video on how I did some areas of the quilting.

 

 

I have just started to go around the body of the little boy.  I can't wait till you see the finished product.  I quilted the stabilizer and now it will not move as it is tacked to the fabric.  It looks messy but you can see the out line tracing of the picture. 

  I did this in steps. 
-One day I painted the fabric. 
-Another day I went and got the picture enlarged.  
-It took time to research on the paint and also finding a coupon to get a good airbrush. 
(You don't have to buy an airbrush at hobby lobby they have the paint and a spray that works like an airbrush.)
-It also took time to make time to start the quilting.  Life can be busy.
-Now to the fun part. 

The Process.